Sassafras or not? First instinct was heck ya I found momma some sass in the local wood dump. The orange under the bark is always a dead giveaway. Then the seeds of doubt crept in. The heartwood color has me confused along with my memory. And ive never seen one this big. I’ve seen people with similar wood call it cottonwood. Never had any but before I go through the trouble of grabbing this stuff,,,,, Sorry for lousy pics, freezing rain and I wasn’t dressed for a scrounge, Never got out of the car This last one is different, in person I thought sugar maple. Looking at the pic it looks like a pine. Appreciate any thoughts on this one too
First is cottonwood. Saturated when green, dries lighter than tulip in six months. Pretty sure that's sugar maple. Grab it. Better btu's than oak and dries in a year. EDIT: after further study with the broken knots and bark it does resemble pine
Joe, if mama likes sassafras she might like cottonwood too. It dries stupid fast and ignites like cardboard. Good gopher wood
Well thanks for the confirmation. Someone new must be running the wood dump. This dump is supposed to be for fire wood scrounging, Historically some good stuff gets put there. Been nothing but junk lately.
Tough to split tho right? That’s exactly why she likes sass. My thought was cut these rounds in half and run em through the box wedge. Then she can make kindling out of them. Sass cracks easy
I wouldn't say it's tough, although I've only gotten a couple 12" logs so I've never wrestled with the big boys. Someone like Sandhillbilly or Wouldsplitter or even Redneck would have a better idea than myself about cottonwood.
The only cottonwood I scrounged was good sized. The maul sunk in like I was splitting a block of clay and water spit out when I did. I stacked it in a shaded spot and it was nice and dry six months later. I mixed one split in with bundles when it was used. IME sass takes the longest to dry of the common SS woods I've scrounged. My current new source for wood (stay tuned thread coming soon) has a couple cottonwood logs I'll be taking. Not sure how your splitter would handle it Joe. It will pop sort of but produce a decent split.
That’s it in a nutshell. Not looking to push the splitter hard for cottonwood. It’s already working harder than it was designed for.
Looks tame enough. Hey whilze I’m pickkins youz guyzez brains. What’s the pine tree that has all the branches exit the trunk in a ring/same height? Red Pine?
not sure on the pine but does sound like red pine. Worst thing you could expect about splitting the cottonwood is getting sprayed. Kinda like wringing a sponge out.
Cottonwood is my main heating wood. Burns ok for my setup. Splits ok normally, crotches can be a pain.
Looks exactly like cottonwood. I agree with Brad that when you sink the wedge into it, water will come pouring out. I would grab it if there is nothing else, but you can get better btu's out of almost any other kind of wood.
Nothing personal but this is how and why I get so much firewood I have to turn it away because no one else wants it.
